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10 March, 2008
Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. has become an anti-social force blocking workplace solutions to the downstream oil section of Nigeria. And the company’s actions last week leave no doubt as to its intentions – it seeks to operate its technical and white-collar work units in downstream production with non-union staff.
The company, 100% owned by US-based ExxonMobil, refused to attend a mandated mediation meeting called by the Nigerian Labour Ministry, on 3 March 2008, to resolve differences on work practices and severance procedures with white-collar oil workers’ trade union, PENGASSAN.
Through much of 2007 and into 2008, ICEM-affiliated PENGASSAN and Mobil Oil – as they did similarly with other oil refiners – engaged in negotiations over severance packages. Some intermediate agreements had occurred, but implementing practical application of job separation was elusive.
That process spilled into the Labour Ministry. Senior Nigerian managers of three downstream firms operating in Nigeria did attend the meeting with Nigeria’s Labour and Industrial Relations Director a week ago. But Mobil Oil Nigeria failed to show up.
In the days following that 3 March meeting, the American company displayed its prejudice: it unilaterally sacked PENGASSAN branch leaders, including the zonal Financial Secretary and the union’s National Treasurer. It now has severed from employment all PENGASSAN bargaining committee members who represent workers in collective negotiations.
It also has fired shop stewards and others identified with the union, rising to over 100 the number of full-time workers sacked. In last year’s talks, PENGASSAN and Mobil Oil Nigeria had agreed to staff cuts of just over 40, mostly to accommodate a new data processing system. The company did employ about 400 white-collar staff permanently, but that number has now decreased, with contract and agency workers now taking many of those jobs.
PENGASSAN Gen. Sec. Bayo Olowoshile
“Mobil Oil Nigeria has betrayed our trust,” stated PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile. “These recent actions are pre-meditated attempts to victimise and harass union officers, frustrate legal justice, and they amount to a serious breach of our existing labour agreement, national industrial law, and global labour standards.”
Olowoshile said Mobil has violated terms of the 2007-2008 labour agreement; breached Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, which grants rights to membership in trade unions; ignored Section 9 of the Nigerian Labour Code; and disregarded ILO Convention 135, the Worker’s Representatives Convention.
With the company failing to turn up for 3 March mediation session, the Labour Ministry is now expected to side with PENGASSAN in a National Industrial Court matter over the company’s unilateral actions. The three downstream companies that did engage in last week’s mediation session included Chevron, African Petroleum Plc., and Oando Plc. The labour relations of Shell Nigeria’s downstream operations are not affected in these talks.
The ICEM steadfastly stands behind PENGASSAN and its illegally sacked leaders at Mobil Oil Nigeria, and will work toward reinstatement. The Global Union Federation notes that the company, in 2004, replaced all its permanent blue-collar workers in the downstream sector with agency workers. Those full-time staff had been represented by ICEM affiliate NUPENG.